If you are applying to nursing school, you have probably run into both of these names by now, usually within a week of each other, usually with no explanation attached. Two entrance exams. Similar purpose. Completely different companies.
The question almost everyone asks first is which one is easier. It is a reasonable question, and there is an answer, but there is something you need to know before the answer will be useful to you.
You do not get to pick. Your nursing program decides which exam it accepts, and you take that one. So the practical version of the question is not “which should I choose,” it is “which one does my program require, and what am I in for.” This article explains both exams so you can be ready to take either one.
Free HESI A2 Practice Tests
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Practice tests for all eight HESI A2 subjects, with detailed answer explanations, written and reviewed by nurse educators.
What the HESI A2 Is
The HESI A2, or Health Education Systems Incorporated Admission Assessment, is published by Elsevier. It is a computer-based entrance exam that can include up to eight academic subjects: Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and General Knowledge, Grammar, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and Physics.
The defining feature of the HESI A2 is that it is modular. Your school builds its own version by selecting which sections you must sit for, and most require four to six. Two applicants to two different programs can both say they took the HESI A2 and have taken meaningfully different exams.
Most administrations also include a Learning Style assessment and a Personality Profile. Neither is scored and neither affects your application.
What the TEAS 7 Is
The TEAS, or Test of Essential Academic Skills, is published by ATI Nursing Education. Version 7 is the current one, which is why you will see it written as TEAS 7.
Unlike the HESI A2, the TEAS is fixed. Everyone who sits for it takes the same four sections in the same order: Reading, Mathematics, Science, and English and Language Usage. There are 170 questions in 209 minutes of testing time, and 150 of those questions are graded. The rest are pretest items ATI is trialing for future versions, and you will not be able to tell which ones they are.
The TEAS is the more widely used of the two. If you are applying broadly, you are more likely to encounter it.
Key Differences at a Glance
| HESI A2 | TEAS 7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Published by | Elsevier | ATI Nursing Education |
| Sections | Up to 8, chosen by your school | 4, fixed for everyone |
| Section list | Math, Reading, Vocabulary, Grammar, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Physics | Reading, Math, Science, English and Language Usage |
| Total questions | Varies by school; roughly 120 to 220 for a typical four-section version, plus 5 pilot questions per section | 170 total, 150 graded |
| Total time | Commonly a 4-hour block | 209 minutes |
| Science coverage | Only the science sections your school requires | Always included, and the largest section |
| Scoring | Percentage per section, plus a composite if your school averages them | Composite percentage plus proficiency level |
| Typical program minimum | 75 to 80 percent | Varies widely by program |
| Grammar tested separately | Yes, its own section | Folded into English and Language Usage |
| Where you test | Usually your nursing school or a proctored site | ATI testing center, a school site, or remote proctored |
Where the Two Exams Actually Diverge
Science is the biggest difference
On the TEAS, science is unavoidable and it is the heaviest section on the exam, at 50 questions and 60 minutes. It pulls from anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, and scientific reasoning, with anatomy and physiology carrying the most weight.
On the HESI A2, your school decides whether you take any science at all. A program requiring only Math, Reading, Vocabulary, and Grammar gives you a HESI A2 with no science section.
That does not mean the science goes away. Every health science program requires it somewhere. A program that leaves science off the entrance exam is usually one that teaches those courses inside its own curriculum, as a four-year bachelor’s program in nursing often does. In that case the HESI A2 is checking whether you have the basic academic skills to handle those courses once you start them.
Grammar and vocabulary get their own sections on the HESI
The HESI A2 breaks English into as many as three separate scored sections: Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and General Knowledge, and Grammar. The TEAS compresses all of that into Reading plus English and Language Usage.
If you are a strong reader with weak grammar, the HESI exposes that weakness on its own line item. The TEAS lets a strong reading score absorb some of it.
The math is similar, but the timing is not
Both exams test the same kind of math, and neither goes past basic algebra. Arithmetic, fractions, decimals, ratios and proportions, percentages, and unit conversions, with word problems built around measurement and dosage.
The TEAS gives you 57 minutes for 38 math questions, which is roughly a minute and a half each. That is comfortable. The HESI A2 math section is longer, at 50 graded questions plus 5 pilot questions, and the pacing is tighter.
Both exams provide the calculator, and both are strict about it. The TEAS gives you a four-function calculator on screen. The HESI A2 uses an on-screen pop-up calculator. If either exam is given on paper, which is rare but does happen for testing accommodations, the center provides a handheld one.
Important: You may not use any calculator other than the one provided. Both companies will disqualify a test taker who does, and you sign a statement acknowledging that before you begin. Practice the arithmetic without a calculator anyway, so that a slow or clumsy on-screen tool does not cost you time.
Scoring reads differently
Both exams score you as a percentage, so the raw numbers look comparable. They are not.
The TEAS also assigns a proficiency level on top of your composite, placing you in a band that ATI defines. Programs sometimes set their requirement by that band rather than by a raw percentage. Bands are relative, not absolute: scoring in the 75th percentile means you did as well as 75 percent of the people who took the exam. It is not a grade.
The HESI A2 gives you a percentage for each section you took, and what happens next depends entirely on your school. Some average your required sections into one composite. Others hold each section to its own minimum, which means one weak subject can disqualify you no matter how well you did elsewhere.
Important: A 78 percent on the HESI A2 and a 78 percent on the TEAS do not mean the same thing, and no program will treat them as interchangeable. Do not try to convert a score from one to the other.
Cost and retakes
Both sit in a similar range, roughly $35 to $115 depending on the exam and where you test, with an additional proctoring fee at some sites.
The reason the price moves around is that you are not really buying from ATI or Elsevier. They sell exams to schools in bulk, and each school decides how much of that cost to pass along. Some absorb most of it to keep the barrier low for applicants. So the fee difference you see between two programs usually says more about the school than about the exam.
Retake rules come from your program in both cases, not from ATI or Elsevier. Two or three attempts in a 12-month window with a waiting period between them is common. The detail worth chasing down early is whether your program uses your highest score or your most recent one, because that changes whether a retake carries any risk.
What the Two Exams Have in Common
They are more alike than different, and this matters if you are anxious about which one you drew.
Both are computer-based multiple-choice entrance exams. Both test academic foundations rather than nursing knowledge, so neither requires anything clinical. Both cover reading, math, and English at roughly a first-year college level. Both carry no penalty for a wrong answer, so you should never leave a question blank on either one. Both are timed tightly enough that pacing matters as much as knowledge. And on both, programs admit competitively, so meeting the published minimum is rarely enough at a school with more applicants than seats.
Good to know: Preparation transfers between them better than most students expect. If you have studied for one and then learn you need the other, you are not starting over. The reading, math, and English work carries across almost entirely.
So Which One Is Easier?
Neither is easier in the abstract. They are not built to different difficulty levels; they are built to different shapes, and the shape that suits you depends on where you are in your prerequisites.
The TEAS concentrates 50 unavoidable questions on science, so it rewards students who have already finished anatomy and physiology, biology, and chemistry. The HESI A2 spreads more sections across a longer sitting and separates grammar and vocabulary into their own scored lines, where a weakness has nowhere to hide.
There is one asymmetry worth naming. Because your school chooses your HESI sections, a HESI A2 program can hand you a lighter exam than the TEAS or a heavier one. A four-section HESI with no science is a shorter afternoon than the TEAS. A six-section HESI with Chemistry, Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology is a considerably harder one.
When the Exam Should Influence Where You Apply
Most of the time, it should not. Pick your program on the things that will still matter in three years: NCLEX pass rates, clinical placements, cost, schedule, accreditation, and whether you can actually get there.
There are two situations where the exam is worth weighing.
The first is your own readiness. If you have not yet taken any science courses, you are not ready for the TEAS. Science is a heavy part of nursing, and doing well on those sections is one of the clearest signals a program has that you are likely to succeed. That is an argument for finishing your prerequisites before you test, not for avoiding the science.
The second is timing. If application deadlines are close and one program’s exam is scheduled sooner or offers more testing dates, that can decide which cycle you make.
Note: Check every program you are applying to individually. Applying to four schools can easily mean two want the TEAS and two want the HESI, and you may need to sit for both. It is common, it is manageable, and it is much easier when you find out in month one rather than month three.
Free HESI A2 Practice Tests
Start Studying Before Test Day
Practice tests for all eight HESI A2 subjects, with detailed answer explanations, written and reviewed by nurse educators.
Preparing for the Exam
The order of operations is the same for both exams. Confirm which one your program requires and, if it is the HESI A2, confirm exactly which sections. Find the score the program wants, and find the average score of admitted students if they publish it, because that number is far more useful than the minimum. Take a full-length practice test cold, before you study, so you know where your weak spots actually are rather than where you assume they are. Then give yourself four to six weeks and spend most of that time on whatever the practice test exposed.
The practice test is the part students skip, and it is the part that does the most work. Reading a chapter and understanding it is a different skill from answering a timed question with four plausible options in front of you, and only one of those skills is the one you need on test day.
All Healthcare Careers has full-length practice tests for both exams, covering all eight HESI A2 subjects and all four TEAS sections, with every question written and reviewed by nurse educators. Whichever exam your program requires, you can practice on questions built to look like the ones you will actually see.
Either exam is a gate, not a verdict. Find out which one you are walking through, then go prepare for that one specifically.
